We are all guilty of keeping our health on the back burner and ignoring those subtle hints sometimes. Now wouldn’t it be great if you can get a scientifically backed tool that helps you monitor even the slightest variations in your health?
Well, the Welltory iPhone app is a heart rate variability monitor that promises to do precisely that.
But how does the app track our heart rate and stress levels? Is it as good as it sounds? Well, here’s an in-depth review of the Welltory app so you can get all the answers.
Welltory: Blood Pressure Pulse – An overview
It is often said that knowledge is power. And with a host of impressive features, analytics, and insights, Welltory puts that power into your hands. The smart health tracking app analyzes your data, makes inferences, and suggests a probable course of action.
It measures your heart rate variability, aka HRV. Do not confuse it with heart rate (number of beats per minute); HRV is the difference in time between heartbeats.
Measured in milliseconds, the variance can help access the state of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This, in turn, allows you to analyze the body’s systems, physiological stress levels, risk of getting sick, and much more.
The whole idea is based on science and decades of research and used by astronauts, health officials, and athletes to study and maintain their bodies’ reactions to certain situations. You can read about it in detail on the app’s website.
How does Welltory work?
Now, measuring HRV is not as easy as measuring your current heartbeat or blood oxygen level. So, Welltory employs PPG (Photoplethysmography) and ECG (Electrocardiogram) to measure heartbeat intervals down to milliseconds.
- PPG – Welltory uses the phone’s flash to illuminate your finger and measure the changes in light absorption and blood volume. Accordingly, it registers the time lapsed between each beat and creates a graph.
- ECG – If you own BLE heart rate monitors like Polar, Apple Watch, Samsung HRM, the app measures electric signals from the heart and deduce HRV.
Measuring heart rate variability on iPhone
- Download and install the Welltory app on your device
- Tap the heart rate icon at the bottom.
- Now, place your finger on the flash while covering the camera. The app will start measuring your HRV instantly.
After almost a minute, the app will show you some incredible and somewhat surprising insights like productivity, energy, and stress.
Insights that can make a difference
Welltory uses 22 heart and nervous system metrics to help understand your health status. And while the histogram is somewhat interpreted, terms like SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, Mean RR, etc., can be pretty overwhelming.
But Wellroy helps you with that as well. For one, it briefly explains what each metric reflects. Plus, it uses green, yellow, and red colors to show where you stand.
Remarkably, that’s not all! The app promises an overall health reading, and it leaves no stones unturned to bring that to use.
Integration of apps and smart gadgets
Welltory supports over 120 smart gadgets and apps, including Apple Watch, Fitbit, Gramin, Mi Fit, Nike+ Run Club, Strava, Pillow, Calm, Headspace, MyFitnessPal, etc.
Thanks to it, you can easily track your physical, mental, and emotional metrics right from Welltory. Notably, you may need an active subscription to these apps for a cohesive reading. Let me cite an example of how it helps:
Blood pressure tracking – Get more from your BP ratings with 5 additional indexes based on the latest clinical guidelines. You can add BP manually or connect smart monitors like Qardio or Withings.
Workout and sleep tracking – While you don’t get an extensive metric for each of these categories, it helps you understand how they affect you. For instance, whether Zumba and Yoga make you happier or weight training in the gym.
Plus, after accessing your results, it will suggest the right time to hit the gym or tips for better sleep.
Interestingly, the app also supports integration with :
- Diet-planning apps like MyFitnessPal to ensure that you’re getting enough protein.
- Productivity apps like Pocket and Todoist help you be more focused.
- Geolocation apps like Swarm to help you discover your happy space. Whether an office, home, or perhaps a bar.
- Environment apps like UV Index Widget or AirPods to establish a link between your surroundings, weather, and health.
- Social media apps from Instagram, Telegram, Reddit to GitHub to limit your procrastination.
And while this may sound too intrusive, these data do help you a lot, as your heart rate changes and adapts to your current activity and mood. Also, it is not compulsory to hand in those details; these are some perks of Welltory that you can start and stop anytime.
Personalized summary to grasp the bigger picture
It’s pretty simple; the more data you give to Welltory, the more insights it could generate. Plus, as it starts to understand your behavior, it will help and guide you better. So, the app encourages you to share your feelings multiple times a day.
You can also set reminders for daily heart rate variability measurements. And accordingly, it will make a daily move plan or personalized summary with goals and training zones to help make you fitter.
I must say, the app gives you some exciting and remarkably accurate key insights every morning. While exploring the app, my stress level shot up due to a medical emergency at home, and the app caught it. See my reading from three consecutive days in the below screenshot.
Another interesting feature of the app is the Self Test section covering various topics from personality, cognitive abilities, mental health to productivity. These tests boast simple multiple-choice questions for a thorough assessment. And the results carry recommendations that’ll help you grow and thrive.
Can Welltory help you improve your health?
Let me be honest here; I am very judgy and conservative when it comes to diagnostic apps. Not every app is accurate, and this could lead to some scary scenarios. But the Welltory iPhone app did put me at ease with an almost on-point and accurate analysis of my mental and physical state.
And I love how they use a colorful, graphical interface to keep things fun and interesting. Plus, every section and metric comes with a brief explanation, allowing you a better grasp of your data. And if you want more details and scientific explanations, their website happily handles that.
Furthermore, the developers keep striving for more. Their past updates and future goals illustrate their keenness on building as cohesive an app as possible.
Pros
- Awesome colorful, fun interface
- Accurate readings and insights
- Great integration options
- Personalized summary
Cons
- The phone heats a lot during measurements
- No trial period
However, I do have one suggestion for them. What if there’s a subscription pack for all related apps, i.e., the brand collaborates with other apps and offers a bundle price? This will help users enjoy everything at one place and one price.
Price: Freemium version with limited functionality; Premium costs –
- Monthly – $12.99/month
- Yearly – $79.99/month
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